Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Thursday arrived in Saudi Arabia on a two-day visit to attend an extraordinary meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Council’s (OIC) Executive Committee.
The Extraordinary Open-Ended Ministerial Meeting of the OIC Executive Committee is set to be held tonight in Jeddah.
It will “consider the illegal decisions of the Israeli occupation authorities aimed at expanding settlements, pursuing annexation, and attempting to impose Israeli sovereignty over the Occupied West Bank”, according to the Foreign Office (FO).
Dar was received at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz International Airport by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the OIC Ambassador Fawad Sher, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Ahmad Farooq, and Consul General in Jeddah Syed Mustafa Rabbani, FO said.
The meeting is taking place against the backdrop of the Israeli government approving a proposal to register large areas of the occupied West Bank as “state property” for the first time since the occupation of the territory in 1967.
The move is in violation of international law, which states that an occupying power cannot confiscate land in occupied territories.
At the OIC session, FM Dar would share Pakistan’s perspective on the “latest illegal measures by Israel to convert areas of the Occupied West Bank into so-called ‘state land'”, FO said.
He would also hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from OIC member states on the sidelines of the ministerial meeting, the FO statement said, adding that he would “undertake brief visits to the Holy Cities” as well.
The OIC – along with Pakistan, the Arab League and 20 other Muslim and European countries – have jointly condemned Israeli attempts aimed at the “unacceptable de facto annexation” of Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank.
Last week, 93 states – including the eight-nation Muslim bloc – and the European Union (EU) also slammed Tel Aviv’s move. They called for the immediate reversal of the Israeli annexation of West Bank.